In February, the Department for Work and Pensions and the Child Maintenance Group spent £61,314 on their government procurement cards. Back in March, when Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden trumpeted an immediate ‘freeze’ on taxpayer-funded credit card splurging, Guido said it wouldn’t last. In July, well after the vaunted ‘freeze’ they managed to splash £150,386. That’s a 145% increase…
Meanwhile, one million more people are now claiming Universal Credit since Labour came to power, taking the total to 8 million – the highest on record. Add the Whitehall ‘crackdown’ to the list of Labour’s broken promises…
Co-conspirators will remember when Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden made a great fuss earlier this year about slapping an immediate freeze on civil servants’ taxpayer-funded credit cards. At the time, he declared: “We must ensure taxpayers’ money is spent on improving the lives of working people.” Apparently, that mission doesn’t apply to the wine list…
Back in March, pen-pushers at the Cabinet Office shelled out £550 on booze. Tory MP Charlie Dewhirst asked a written parliamentary question on what it was for. Cabinet minister Abena Oppong-Asare responded:
“The referenced entry relates to wine purchased for official business. Any hospitality purchases for diplomatic occasions are made with value-for-money for the taxpayer as a priority.”
So the ‘freeze’ on spending doesn’t extend to the booze fridge. That’s despite the government’s own wine cellar already being stocked to the rafters – some 39,000 bottles by the last count. Vintage hypocrisy…
Co-conspirators will remember when Pat McFadden ordered an “immediate freeze” on government procurement cards back in early March. In February – before the so-called ‘freeze’ – Department for Energy, Security and Net Zero civil servants racked up a tidy £30,889 bill. In March, after the freeze was supposedly in effect, spending surged to £50,161. A 62% increase…
Somehow the pen-pushers managed to spaff £40,578 of that on a gift voucher company “Appreciate Group plc”. The firm offers “Love2shop Gift Card, a pre-paid gift card; Love2shop Gift Voucher, a multi-retailer voucher; Love2shop Holidays.” Taxpayer cash going up in smoke…
Last month Guido revealed staffing costs at the DESNZ had surged by £16 million since Red Ed Miliband took charge – hiring an extra 3,564 mandarins. More staff, more gift vouchers…
HMRC’s bean-counters may be expert at squeezing ‘working people’ for cash, though they’re far less stingy when it comes to their own spending. When it comes to taxpayer-funded government procurement cards, they’re decidedly more tap-happy…
Co-conspirators will recall Pat McFadden declaring an immediate ‘freeze’ on all GPCs in March to clamp down on spending. Yet, in May civil servants at HMRC racked up a GPC bill of £12,893. That’s more than February’s pre-‘freeze’ total of £12,557. An increase of £336. Good luck getting any of them on the phone to explain that…
Guido has been keeping an eye on whether Whitehall’s mandarins have taken any notice of the government’s vaunted ‘crackdown on waste’ after Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden ordered an “immediate freeze” on government procurement cards back in early March. It hasn’t been going well…
In February – before the so-called ‘freeze’ – civil servants in the Home Office and its agencies racked up a tidy £30,062 on taxpayer-funded credit cards. In March, after the freeze was supposedly in effect, spending doubled to £60,460. The spending spree included £820 for the Border Force to have a stand at the Devon County Show to “Publicise Their Work And Engage With The Public”, with another £725 forked out on stamps. McFadden’s memo must have ended up in the bin…
On March 18 Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden announced with great fanfare a bold “crackdown on wasteful spend” by freezing all Government Procurement Cards (GPCs) from that week to free up cash. As promised, Guido’s been keeping tabs on the pen-pushers’ expenses. Spoiler alert: the ‘crackdown’ is going as well as Labour’s mythical ‘bonfire of the quangos’…
In February, before Labour’s supposed war on waste kicked off, the Cabinet Office racked up £144,673.67 on its GPCs. In March that figure soared to a whopping £224,789.78. That’s a 55% jump in spending. Over £5,500 went on hotels alone. Not exactly penny-pinching…
McFadden insisted that GPC holders would need to reapply and justify their spending. Apparently Whitehall’s finest had no trouble passing that test. Business as usual, then…
The day after Starmer U-turned and refused to blame Trump for the war Rachel Reeves told the Mirror:
“Obviously no sensible person is a supporter of the Iranian regime, but to start a conflict without being clear what the objectives are and not being clear about how you are going to get out of it, I do think that is a folly and it is one that is affecting families here in the UK but also families in the US and around the world.”